


A Winter Walk

by TheDogPotato



Series: Bear in mind: I love you [3]
Category: Whitechapel (TV)
Genre: Dogs, Fluff, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-05-04
Updated: 2018-05-04
Packaged: 2019-05-02 07:53:24
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,116
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14540145
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/TheDogPotato/pseuds/TheDogPotato
Summary: Kent and Chandler take Kent's parents' dog, Bear, out for a walk in the snow :)Note: It's possible to read every part of this series as a standalone fic :)





	A Winter Walk

Emerson and Joe had barely arrived at the door of Emerson’s parents’ house before they heard Bear barking and whimpering on the other side of the door.

“Hey Bear!” Emerson greeted her happily before he’d even turned the key. As he opened the door it was forcefully pushed more open as the Samoyed flew outside, circled Emerson a couple of times and then did the same to Joe as she whimpered with happiness.

“Aw come on, Bear. You can’t have been alone for that long. It’s still early in the day,” Emerson said.

Joe bent down to meet Bear as their previous walks together had taught him that she had a tendency to jump up when she got really excited.

“Hi Bear. How are you?” he asked her as he tried to pet her on the head, but she was too excited to stay still, so he ended up patting her back a couple of times instead.

“I’m just gonna get her leash and then we’ll be on our way. I might not want to go out again if we stay inside for too long,” Emerson said.  

Winter had arrived properly, and the streets had been filled with snow earlier in the morning. It was already fast turning into a grey slush, but they were headed for the park where it was still untouched and pretty some places.

“At least there’s almost no wind today,” Joe said as Emerson returned and locked the door. He’d held onto Bear so she wouldn’t get any ideas and run off into the street but let go as Emerson went to put on her leash.

“Oh yeah that’s definitely good,” Emerson said. He tugged on the leash: “Come on, Bear!”

She’d still been happily trotting around Joe but as soon as she heard that she ran down the stairs and almost caught Emerson off balance as she’d gained momentum before he reigned her back in.

“Bear, we can’t go that fast,” he complained at the dog, then turned to look back at Joe. “You’re ready to catch me, when she inevitably starts running off to somewhere just as we’re walking in that soapy slush, aren’t you?” he said with a grin.

Joe hesitated. “Of course,” he said in a tone that was a little too serious, but they arrived at the park without Bear pulling too much on her leash, although she did get more eager as they came closer to the park.

“You need to understand the concept of traffic lights,” Emerson said before he made her sit down as they waited for the light to switch.

“Wouldn’t that be rather hard with the way dogs see colours?” Joe asked.

Emerson paused for a moment. “Hmm, maybe. Alright, you’re forgiven, Bear.” He turned to Joe and put a hand next to his mouth as he pretend-whispered: “I’d have forgiven her anyway.”

Joe smiled. “Oh I am shocked at that revelation.”

There were plenty of people in the park despite and because of the cold weather, but Bear was used to going on walks where there were lots of people. This also meant that lots of dogs had been there and Bear was intent on taking in all the smells almost burying her nose in the snow which stopped the flow of the walk. Emerson tried to get her to move along a couple of times, but she stubbornly dug her paws into the ground and he yielded.

“I guess she’s decided the tempo of the walk today. This is gonna take a while,” Emerson said as he looked up at Joe with a guilty smile.

Joe had just recovered from a cold and Emerson didn’t want to keep him out in the cold for too long, but he didn’t look bothered. But then again, he had for the most part claimed to not be bothered by the cold itself and insisted on going to work most days with most people on the team being half-ill already anyway. He’d stayed away two days when it was really bad, which had halfway been due to Emerson insisting. It didn’t take a genius to figure out that that was the case when Joe didn’t show up, and Emerson had been on the receiving end of a lot of remarks of him being a worrying mother hen mixed in with actual advice on how to help Joe get better.

Emerson wasn’t sure how he’d managed to avoid the illness so far. Even at his worst, Joe had been great at keeping everything sanitized, but the same couldn’t be said for the police station. He was afraid it was only a matter of time before he too would wake up with a scratchy throat.

“Do you want to go somewhere for a hot drink afterwards?”  Emerson asked.

“Mhm,” Joe hummed affirmatively, evidently lost in thought. He turned to Emerson a moment after with a nervous smile.

“Speaking of a place to go for a drink, I promised Ed I would ask you if you’d come along the next time there’s a pub quiz,” Joe said.

Emerson let out a puzzled laugh. “Me? I think there’d be quite a few better candidates than me.”

“Ed said they’d be excited to have some, I believe he used the term “young blood”, in the group. One of his friends have fallen and broken a leg so this is not the best weather for him to head out in, and I already said I’d be there, but he seemed excited about the idea that I might bring you along.”

“I suspect he thought you might have a better time if I came along too? Cause I’m pretty sure I won’t be able to contribute with much,” Emerson said.

“That might be part of it, but it’s always good to have people with different areas of expertise, and you’ve a much broader knowledge of music than any of us.” 

“Then let’s just hope something comes up I can answer so I won’t feel completely useless.”

“Is that a yes?” Joe asked.

“Sure, why not,” Emerson replied happy that something so small could provide a smile on Joe’s lips.

A German Shepherd going in the opposite direction as they did started barking at Bear, but she just laid down waiting patiently for the dog to come to her, wagging her tail slowly.

The owner, a young woman, smiled apologetically at them as her dog kept barking as they got closer. It looked young and playful, so Emerson just waited for them to meet, knowing that Bear was good with other dogs and that she’d tell it if it went too far. Bear stood up as the young dog leapt towards her no longer barking but wagging its tail fast as it bent down on its front paws in a playful gesture.

“Play nice, River. I’m so sorry about his barking, we’re trying to get him to stop, but so far it’s not working that well,” the woman said.

“Aw no that’s okay. We don’t mind,” Emerson said as he tried to keep the dog leashes from being tangled together. Bear had taken up the invitation to play, so they both had to watch out for that and prepare not to fall over should any of the dogs come running into their legs, not noticing their humans mid-play.

“What a beautiful dog! It matches the snow,” she commented.

“Thanks! He’s a cute one. He can’t be that old,” Emerson replied.

“Oh no, he’s only 10 months.”

Emerson was mid “aw” when the dogs simultaneously decided to run around Joe’s legs threatening to trip him up. The woman and Emerson both let go of the leashes to grab them again closer to the dogs’ collars avoiding having to run around Joe as well.

“Alright River, she was sweet, but I think we gotta go now,” the woman said, “have a good walk!”

“You too,” Emerson said and turned to Joe whose shoulders were currently almost ear-level. He gently linked his arm with Joe’s.

“You alright?” he asked looking up at him.

Joe laughed with relief and lowered his shoulders as he relaxed. “Yeah, for a moment there I thought I was gonna end up in a human-dog sandwich.”

“Sorry. I’ll keep a closer eye on her next time,” Emerson said.

“It’s alright. So will I,” Joe said and pulled Emerson a bit closer.

They continued walking for a while, stopping often as dictated by whenever Bear found something interesting to sniff.

When they stopped for the umpteenth time, Bear let out a puff of air as she dug her nose into the snow, clearly very interested in what she could smell, two seconds later she tried to dig into the cold hard ground.

“Oh no, Bear, don’t do that! You broke one of your nails like that one time. Come let’s distract her!” Emerson said as he for once pulled enough on her leash that she had to reluctantly follow along. They moved away from the path and into the deeper snow.

“You’re a real polar bear now, Bear,” Joe remarked, staying at the edge of the tall snow. His footwear wasn’t really suited for walking through snow.

Emerson huffed. “You’re the first person to call her that. Ever,” he said sarcastically.

“Bear doesn’t care, do you, Bear?” Joe said making his voice higher pitched when he talked directly to the dog. Emerson still couldn’t get used to Joe talking to her like that. He would never have imagined that Joe would have the same reaction to Bear liking him as he had had to Miles’ daughter calming down when he held her, but there it was, that big smile on his face, as Bear turned around in the snow to get back to him.

“Try throwing a snowball at her. She loves it!” Emerson said. Joe paused to look at him.

“What? You’re not afraid to get your hands cold, are you? It’s great for making snowballs!” he said and kicked some of the snow that rolled along gathering up some more snow and making tiny snowballs on its own. Bear immediately turned away from Joe again to chase the bits of snow he’d kicked up. Emerson smiled at her as she wagged her tail furiously in anticipation of more snow-chasing fun.

Joe found that he couldn’t resist either of their happy faces, and kneeled to make a snowball. Bear was pulling at the leash to get towards Joe now that the tall human was coming down to her height, but Emerson held her back, so she wouldn’t jump at Joe while covered in snow.

He stood up and threw the snowball at Bear who jumped up to successfully catch it, the snow breaking as she chomped down on it. She started sniffing at the ground to see where the toy had gone. Emerson praised her and kicked up some more snow for her to chase. As Emerson was distracted by playing with Bear, Joe quickly grabbed another handful of snow, pressed it together and sent it flying. It landed directly in the back of Emerson’s head. He stopped in his tracks and turned around with a confused grin on his face.

“Was that- was that you?” He said as he shook his head to send the snow flying so it hopefully wouldn’t melt down his neck.

“I’ve no idea what you’re talking about,” Joe smiled not even trying to look innocent.

“Of course,” Emerson said slowly kneeling down to gather a snowball too, “you gotta watch out when it’s this kind of weather. You never know when a snowball is going to fall from the sk—augh!” Distracted by his thoughts of payback, Emerson hadn’t thought of the Samoyed happily thinking that him sitting down meant play. Bear pounced on him and he landed on his back in the snow. So much for avoiding getting it down his neck.

“Bear!” he yelled.

Bear stuck her face close to his, a big goofy dog smile on her face.

“Bear, you silly beast!” he said as he sat up and hugged her, still not able to stay mad at her. He looked past her fur and up at Joe who looked like he was trying not to laugh. Joe took a step forward and extended a hand towards him.

Emerson sighed but smiled. “Alright, I think I’m ready to go for that hot drink now!” He said as he grabbed Joe’s hand.

“How about just a warm cup of tea at your parents’ house? It’s the shortest walk, meaning the three of us would all be warm as soon as possible,” Joe suggested as he helped him up.

“Yeah! That sounds good!”


End file.
